Transform your legacy knowledge with HR …You need a general understanding of HR knowledge...

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Transform your legacy knowledge with HR Knowledge Management HR can be the champion of organizational knowledge

What’s in this Success Playbook By implementing knowledge management with ServiceNow® HR Service Delivery (HRSD), you can improve the quality of service you deliver to your employees. You can allow employees to manage their basic information needs, increase their satisfaction, and reduce the cost of maintaining and managing HR services. However, some companies may be unprepared to deploy knowledge management because HR policies and articles are either scattered or stored in areas not accessible to staff.

This Success Playbook will help you transform your knowledge articles into HR knowledge management by teaching you to:

• Consolidate HR policies and articles from multiple repositories for easier access

• Standardize knowledge articles using a template for easier production and consumption

• Import articles into the ServiceNow HR knowledge management solution for easier administration

Key takeaways The most important things to know • Focus on implementing a standard process for knowledge management, with clearly

defined roles and responsibilities. In many organizations, knowledge is scattered and hard to find – but that’s usually because the approach to knowledge management is informal and unorganized.



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• Get executive sponsorship in place to ensure knowledge management is sufficiently prioritized and promote organizational change management to help employees take advantage of improved knowledge resources.

The payoff of getting this right By promoting self-service, effective HR knowledge management should reduce HR case volumes and speed up resolution—that means big cost savings.

What you need to get started Prerequisites

You need a general understanding of HR knowledge management as well as a process for managing your existing knowledge articles.

When you should start this activity You can transform HR knowledge management at any time, but ensure that you have solid executive sponsorship and supporting change management resources before you start.

Playbook overview Follow these stages to navigate the transformation process and get the most out of ServiceNow HRSD:

Step 1 – Organize your approach

Step 2 – Templatize your Knowledge

Step 3 – Build new content, consolidate, and review your entire inventory

Step 4 – Configure your HR knowledge base

Step 5 – Perform a final review and publish



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Step 1 – Organize your approach Discover how to address the challenge of legacy knowledge.

KEY INSIGHTS • Create a team to decide what to include in your knowledge base, then build and maintain

it.

• Provide employees with centralized knowledge access for a more consumerlike experience.

• Launch knowledge management with change management.

If your company is like most, chances are your knowledge is scattered and hard to find. The first step in helping employees get the knowledge they need is to organize your approach to knowledge management:

• Define your team and the roles you will include

• Define your knowledge base (KB) categories

• Develop your inventory of knowledge

EXPERT TIP

Before you build your knowledge management team, get executive sponsorship for the project and promote change management early.

ACTION STEP 1:

Define your key stakeholders and build your team

When you build out knowledge management for your company, you need to get a variety of roles involved and determine their responsibilities. Find out who the knowledge experts are in your company.

Look for your knowledge management team members in the roles described in Table 1. You may not be able to put all of the roles we suggest in place—that’s OK. It's common for team members to wear multiple hats and still be very effective.

https://www.servicenow.com/success/playbook/gain-executive-sponsor-guide.html

https://www.servicenow.com/success/playbook/change-management-plan-guide.html



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ROLE ROLE DESCRIPTION

Program manager If possible, assign a program manager to build a project plan, assign a project name, and manage the knowledge management transformation project. The project manager will ensure your project stays on track and meets all criteria for an effective deployment.

Knowledge manager

The knowledge manager is responsible for owning the knowledge base itself, the system, configuration, and ongoing maintenance. In addition, through dashboard reporting, the knowledge owner will monitor and identify top issues and/or concerns within the organization. This manager also:

• Requires significant involvement from the SMEs and project team • May require an initial investment to get up to speed on the company,

project objectives, and knowledge • Will likely speed up the process • Will cross-train content owner(s) • May come at a higher cost This person typically has the skills of a project manager and previous experience with managing a knowledge base. Experience with migration processes would be a plus.

Content owner(s) or SME(s)

Assigned content owner(s), aka SME(s), do not have to be dedicated resources—they may wear many hats. They will ensure the content is created and maintained with consistent best practices and that it follows quality standards. Content owners may be support desk staff that you move into this role or functional area experts in benefits, employee relations, payroll, etc. They are:

• Key stakeholders who will review and build new knowledge content as you prepare for deployment and ongoing maintenance of the knowledge base

• The reviewers and approvers of knowledge articles prior to publishing for consumption o Functional area experts (like those in benefits, employee relations,

payroll, etc.) are ideal for this role. • Aware of where the HR knowledge gaps are in your organization • Typically in a relevant center of excellence (CoE)

Content writer (optional) Content writers are sometimes technical writers who prepare articles and other supporting documents to communicate complex and technical information more easily. They should be part of the review, editorial, and final review processes. Content writers will also review grammar, format, messaging, etc. (Note: Content writers could be the same as the content owners/SMEs in certain situations.)

End users Don’t lose sight of your consumers of knowledge, which include your employees, supervisors, contingent workers, and your HR agents.

Table 1: Suggested roles for your knowledge management team



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EXPERT TIP project team Make sure some of the members of your knowledge management team are dedicated resources to ensure quality and success.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Knowledge author • Draft

• Edit

Knowledge reviewer • Review submissions

• Review articles

• Retire/cancel

Knowledge manager • Final review

• Publish

• Retire/cancel

• Recover from retired/cancel

Knowledge admin • Delete articles

• Train, troubleshoot, and support

• Detect and track defects and requirements

• Develop

Service desk agents • Consume knowledge

• Submit knowledge from cases

• Provide feedback on knowledge

Employee community • Consume knowledge

• Provide feedback on knowledge

Table 2: Example of a ServiceNow customer’s definition of knowledge team roles and responsibilities



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Customer example of a core knowledge management project team

• Executive sponsors • Service delivery manager • Project managers • Designer • Developers

• Enterprise knowledge team • Service desk agents • Service partners • End users

Table 2 and the customer's list of team members above show how the roles and responsibilities can vary based on how you structure the knowledge team. Some of these roles aren’t necessarily full time, but they could be. What’s important to your short- and long-term KB success and quality is that you create a team with a strategic focus on knowledge management.

ACTION STEP 2: Create categories for your content

The knowledge you will create and capture in later stages of this project requires some prior organization. Later, when you deploy the ServiceNow Employee Service Center, you’ll use categories to organize your knowledge topics.

Given this, before you capture existing or build new knowledge, you need to build a framework for categorization. Then, as you capture the content in the later steps, the framework will help you filter the content to the appropriate category. By doing this, you make the inventory and review process go much quicker and lay the groundwork for an effective search experience for your employees.

Your framework should include parent (top-level) categories and child categories. The parent of a child category can be a top-level category or another child category. When you make a category the child of another child category, you can create a category structure with any number of levels. You can create and edit categories separately for each knowledge base.

By defining categories up front, you’ll be prepared to store inventory in each category—and you’ll make it easier for your team to review, consolidate, and prepare the data.

Categories

Select the level 1 category, if no level 2 category fits, then leave it as the level 1 category. If there is a level 2 category that matched the content, select that category. If you need to add a category, please reach out to the knowledge manager.



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LEVEL 1 CATEGORY LEVEL 2 CATEGORY

Benefits • Employee benefits (perks) • Education assistance • Health and wellness • Life insurance • Retirement • Time away

Compensation • Compensation or promotion

• Salary assessment • Global incentive plans

General • Facilities • Finance • IT • Procurement • Security • Safety

Global mobility • Immigration • Transfers

Goals and performance • Goals • Conversations and

feedback • Performance management

process • Report a concern

Hiring • Intern program support • Opportunities • Requisitions • Hiring process • Contingent workers

Table 3: Customer example of categories for part of a style guide



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Figure 1: ServiceNow HR knowledge categories example

EXPERT TIPS

To help you define who owns the content, align your categories with Centers of Excellence (CoEs) since your content owners are also probably within a CoE in your HR department.

Consider limiting how many categories you use to help optimize search. Depending on the company structure and global requirements, some customers use only five to 10.

Related resources

• ServiceNow product documentation on defining a knowledge article category

ACTION STEP 3: Take inventory

As you take inventory of the knowledge you already have for your knowledge base, look for these types of HR content:

• Policies

• Standard operating procedures (SOPs)

• FAQs

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/newyork-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/task/t_DefineAKnowledgeCategory.html



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• User guides

• Job aids

• Articles

• Release notes

• Procedures

• Quick reference guides

Your knowledge management team should look for the answers to several questions. These questions will lead the team in the right direction so you can glean all that’s currently available.

Table 4: Questions to help you take inventory



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Customer example of pre-deployment knowledge management findings

• Duplicative storage locations for HR knowledge – Value of knowledge was already inherent

• Inconsistent formats and templates across countries and languages – Pulled the best from these templates to make a new one

• Almost zero knowledge articles – Starting fresh meant we got to build from the ground up—and no clean up!

• One knowledge manager supporting 200 – Had to decentralize and simplify

EXPERT TIP

To reduce risk and to protect your HR service delivery operations, use quality articles and SOPs. Document the processes agents follow on high-impact and risk cases.



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Step 2 – Templatize your knowledge Learn to build a knowledge template and content standards that fit our company’s needs.

KEY INSIGHTS • Create a solid article structure to make your KB easy to use and understand.

• Use the same template for all KB articles for better consistency.

• Digitize your knowledge assets and optimize them for online consumption.

“Data is nothing without understanding.”

– James Freeman-Gray

With an effective KB article template, you’ll engage your employees easily, answer their questions quickly so they can get back to work, and make it easier for them to be employees at your company.

Establish standards for authoring quality content You only have one opportunity to make a good first impression, so make sure you set standards. Here are several:

• Keep articles short and digestible.

• Answer only one question in each article.

• Use clear, action-based titles.

• Define terms and acronyms.

• Add search phrases to articles.

• Link articles to show relationships.

• Add context about why or when someone would use the steps in the article—and don’t be afraid to use examples.

• Establish the font and font size(s) to use.



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• Provide a consistent format for KB authors to follow.

• Explain how authors should (or shouldn’t) use notes.

• For multistep processes, begin steps with action words and write them in the active voice.

• Keep language clear and concise and improve the user experience with user-centered language.

• Show don’t tell. Whenever possible, add screenshots, animated GIFs, or even videos to make it easier for readers to follow along.

• If readers need to complete multiple steps—and those steps don’t have to be accomplished in a certain order—start with the easiest step first. This allows readers to get at least one accomplishment under their belt before they move to the hard stuff.

• Use the tone and voice that fits your company culture.

• Be straightforward and avoid jargon whenever possible. When it’s not possible to avoid jargon, be sure you define it. Remember, your main goal is to communicate information.

• Avoid the curse of knowledge. Always remember that your readers don’t have the same depth of knowledge as you do, so try to put yourself in a beginner’s shoes.

EXPERT TIP

Develop a style guide with guidance on font, font size, colors, images, article naming, etc.

Use the example in Figure 2 as a starting place for your company’s template. When you create your own template, consider the needs of your company. During this process, partner with your marketing and internal communications team if possible.



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Figure 2: A knowledge base article template

ACTION STEP 1: Choose a title your employees can find

A clear, well-thought-out title is essential because it’s how employees will actually find the answers to their questions. After all, if your employees can’t find the article, it doesn’t matter how good it is! To make your titles easy to search, avoid jargon. Explain the problem in simple English using the same terminology that you use in your interface.

Figure 3: Sample knowledge search from the ServiceNow Employee Service Center



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ACTION STEP 2:

Start with the situation

Start each article by succinctly discussing the actual problem the article solves. This lets readers know they’re in the right place and sets expectations for what they’ll get from the article.

Figure 4: Example of knowledge article introduction

ACTION STEP 3:

Include a table of contents for long articles

If your article is especially long, it’s a good idea to include a table of contents so readers can move to the exact section they need. Whenever possible, consider breaking up the article into separate, shorter articles. But if long content is unavoidable, definitely include a table of contents.

EXPERT TIPS

ServiceNow allows HTML content in knowledge articles, which can create a modern look and feel that will attract and engage your employees.

Use HTML to link the table of contents to the applicable section in the article. You may have to disable the HTML sanitizer for this to work.

Figure 5: Example of an article’s table of contents



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ACTION STEP 4:

Create step-by-step instructions

For articles that include instructions with multiple steps, add a section to your template with guidelines on how to do this. Make only one point or provide one direction in each step. And do your best to keep the instructions simple. You know the ins and outs of your HR processes, so it’s easy to forget that your readers lack the same level of expertise.

Customer example of step-by-step knowledge article instructions

1. A manager who receives a report alleging harassment should take detailed notes of the complaint and should reassure the employee(s) concerned that the matter will be treated in confidence and will be investigated promptly.

2. The manager should immediately advise the VP EMEA and the HR director of the allegation.

3. The VP EMEA, together with the HR director and the manager who received the allegation, will agree on a plan that ensures that the matter is thoroughly investigated and the facts established as soon as possible.

4. Once the facts are established, the VP EMEA (or their nominee) will determine the subsequent course of action to be followed. In a situation where the investigation establishes that harassment has taken place, the matter will be dealt with in accordance with local disciplinary procedures.

5. The manager who received the original report of harassment is responsible for ensuring that the employee who made the allegation is advised of the outcome of their complaint.

Similarly, if you’re writing FAQs instead of instructions, keep each question and answer to a single, specific topic.

ACTION STEP 5: Break up content with headings

Use intelligent headings to break up your content into easily digestible chunks. If one article requires readers to complete two different sets of actions, it’s a good idea to put them underneath separate headings.



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Customer example of knowledge article sections

General information – Authorized business travel for staff that includes prepayments and must be preapproved.

Reimbursement of parking, mileage, gasoline in lieu of mileage and ferry or bus passes do not require requests if they are under $10. Requests for reimbursement of expenses over $10 are to be submitted on a Travel Reimbursement form.

Permissible prepaid travel expenses – Before the travel, [Company Name] may issue prepayments for airfare, rail transportation, rental vehicles, conference registration fees, and cash advances. Applicable policies and methods of payments for these prepayments follow.

You can add links to your content but try to avoid creating an article with several outside links. You can also add attachments, but you may prefer to store attachments elsewhere.

ACTION STEP 6:

Use proper formatting for asides, notes, and a mobile-friendly display

Sometimes you’ll need to add more information to your articles as an aside. When you do add extra information, make sure you format it so readers know it’s an aside. This helps readers quickly distinguish between instructions and additional information. Proper formatting of different types of information goes a long way toward enhancing your readers’ comprehension.

Keep in mind that employees will access knowledge articles on a mobile device, so use a mobile-friendly format for your articles. Then test the view yourself on your phone or tablet!



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Figure 6: Advanced design of a mobile-responsive KB article

The ServiceNow Employee Service Center includes tools that will help you create mobile-friendly articles using a responsive design.

ACTION STEP 7: Use the template to standardize your KB articles, then review

Finally, you need to standardize your articles. By using the same template over and over, your employees will develop cognitive fluency, making it easier for them to navigate your KB.

As soon as your template is complete, start moving your articles and policies into it. This is also the right time to make the necessary updates to the documents where applicable.

The knowledge articles will then go through a review process. Normally, at least one role is assigned to this, typically a knowledge owner. The knowledge owner might first review the format of the knowledge artifact then consult with a content owner for accuracy and relevance. Since content owners are SMEs, using them in the knowledge management process is paramount because they provide the expertise you need to ensure the information you publish is accurate. A SME working on the example shown in Figure 6 may be a Tier 2 or 3 representative or HR personnel in benefits.

Technical reviews are required before you publish content in order to:

• Ensure the content is correct before it’s published

• Remove errors and inconsistencies that reduce the effectiveness of your KB



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Step 3 – Build new content, consolidate, and review your entire inventory

Discover how to create new knowledge articles and prepare your final inventory.

KEY INSIGHTS • After you take inventory, identify your knowledge gaps and build content to fill them.

• Before you put your new articles into a standard template, look for duplicates.

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Now that you’ve collected your organization’s existing knowledge, the next step is to create new knowledge articles to fill in any remaining gaps in your KB. As you review this step, make sure to download our HR Knowledge Starter Content update sets for sample knowledge articles and blocks that provide general layout examples and guidance for structuring effective content.

Build new content How do you get the information you need? You’ll find great information when you interview or survey your most knowledgeable HR experts. To find these experts, look for the people who are currently answering employee questions. While this process may be time consuming, it’s essential to ensure the success of your KB. Here’s what you should ask them:

• What questions are you most commonly asked?

• What is our vacation policy?

• Does our company allow employees to work from home?

• Does our company offer a referral bonus for open positions?

• What are the different ways employees ask the same questions?

• Where is the key information currently stored?

The most frequently asked questions will differ from company to company and from region to region. It’s also important to ensure that your HR team is thinking broadly across the organization

https://developer.servicenow.com/app.do#!/share/contents/4160751_employee_experience_pack_hr_knowledge_starter_content?v=1.0&t=PRODUCT_DETAILS



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and not just about a certain employee group—ask about hourly employees or other global locations, for example. Though executives may use the KB less often, you’ll also need to include their frequently asked questions.

Once you’ve gathered what you consider to be the majority of your frequently asked questions, it’s time to write the responses to these questions. Think about how you would respond to the question based on who’s asking it. You may have multiple answers for the same question, and you need to tag these answers accordingly so the right employee group can access them.

Using ServiceNow, you can create knowledge base articles directly from a case. This means you can save the time you would otherwise spend writing a new KB article from scratch.

EXPERT TIP

Incentivize HR support agents to create or identify new content, like a $20 gift card to agents who generate the most draft articles in a week.

Articles for global companies Global organizations have the challenge of making sure articles address local needs:

• Use different sections in articles as well as attachments and links for each region. These are often called snippets.

• Consider creating different articles for the different regions so you can make them very specific and localized.

Knowledge blocks As of the ServiceNow London release, you can now segment content into knowledge blocks. The feature allows HR to create knowledge articles with criteria-based, easily consumable sections for end users. For example, if you have a travel policy that varies by country, you’ll be able to create knowledge blocks based on per diem rates that may vary by country but that all exist in the same article. Based on the user accessing the article, they’ll see the policy applicable to them. When you use knowledge blocks, you don’t need multiple articles or separate, country-specific knowledge bases.

EXPERT TIP

You can also manually key articles into ServiceNow.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concept/knowledge-blocks.html



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Build your knowledge base with the consumer in mind Your knowledge base can be either internal, external, or both. You could create a simple version with detailed information for your external knowledge base that employees can access while simultaneously building an internal knowledge base with specific details for your HR support staff. This eliminates the need for separate training for new staff and also makes it quick for them to access information.

Your internal KB is available only to HR or shared services staff as a single source of truth and:

• Ensures consistency of response across your organization

• Allows organizations to train new HR support agents quickly

• May include unique language that might help explain content to employees

Your external KB is searched by employees to get answers to HR-related questions and:

• Allows for greater Tier 0 service or self-service

• Includes content that is targeted to the audience

• When combined with case management, drives greater self-service

When writing knowledge base articles, give clear instructions in simple language for your readers to understand. It’s not wrong to be very granular, because what is a very commonplace thing for you might be difficult for employees. Don’t assume that your employees will understand what you know very well. Explain concisely and thoroughly. In addition to links, you can also add attachments, but you may prefer to store attachments elsewhere.

Review, identify duplicates, and merge articles or policies At this point, you’ve created knowledge categories and have placed your existing and newly created inventory of articles into categories. Now it’s time to:

• Place articles into one central place for review. See Table 5 for a suggested folder structure.

• Review each article for relevance and accuracy, ensuring each article is updated with the latest information.

• Consider assigning a document reference number for each article.

– In speaking with one customer, they had other departments creating overlapping articles. For example, the Talent Management Center of Excellence created an article as part of the onboarding process that housed some benefit documents. Using a document reference number will help identify duplicates or overlapping articles and which CoE the article belongs to. This helps with both SME review and ownership.



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• Assign a content owner as part of the review process and have them participate in reviews and updates.

• Make sure each article is placed in the proper category.

• When duplicates are identified, merge articles as needed.

Table 5: Suggested folder structure to review articles



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Figure 7: Visual of the article review process

Figure 8: Lessons a ServiceNow customer learned from implementing knowledge management

Did you know...?

We talked to a few customers that narrowed down their knowledge base articles significantly after going through this process. Here’s what we learned:

• An enterprise ServiceNow customer reviewed over 100K documents globally and consolidated them into a few thousand knowledge articles ready for consumption.

• An engineering consulting customer reviewed over 6K documents and narrowed them down to only 60 articles at deployment.



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Step 4 – Configure your HR knowledge base Get the basics of importing articles and KB setup within ServiceNow.

KEY INSIGHT • ServiceNow provides a quick and easy way to create and configure your knowledge base.

It’s time to configure your KB! But before you do, make sure you prepare for the future. Chatbots and voice recognition software will need to access your knowledge base before long, so keep this in mind during your configuration process.

Before importing your articles into the HR knowledge base, follow these basic configuration steps.

ACTION STEP 1:

Select your knowledge base

Start out with selecting the knowledge base you will be importing your articles into. When the HR plugin is activated, you automatically get an HR knowledge base. We suggest using Human Resources General Knowledge, but you may have multiple knowledge bases—for multiple countries or divisions—according to your situation.

To view or create a new knowledge base, within the ServiceNow application navigator, enter “knowledge base,” and then navigate to Knowledge > Knowledge Bases.

Note: Note: As mentioned in Step 3, knowledge blocks available as of the London release allow you to reuse content and add to the knowledge articles in a knowledge base. This potentially prevents the need to create multiple knowledge bases in ServiceNow. To learn how to activate knowledge blocks, visit the knowledge blocks product documentation.

ACTION STEP 2:

Select your workflows

There are five out-of-the-box process workflows that come with ServiceNow HRSD.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concept/knowledge-blocks.html



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Figure 9: Out-of-the-box process workflows available in ServiceNow

Choose the workflows for publishing and retiring policies and articles.

Figure 10: ServiceNow knowledge base Publish workflow and Retire workflow Settings

You do have the option to use workflows to meet your needs.

ACTION STEP 3: Create categories

In Step 1, you created your categories. In this step, you’ll create those knowledge categories within ServiceNow. From your HR knowledge base, under Related Links, go to the Knowledge Categories tab.

Update and add the categories you defined.

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/orlando-servicenow-platform/page/administer/workflow/reference/getting-started-workflows.html



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Figure 11: ServiceNow knowledge base Categories setup

ACTION STEP 4:

Set your knowledge base for read and contribute access

By default, the HR knowledge base is set to be accessible for all employee roles, except alumni. You can adjust this if necessary.

Figure 12: ServiceNow knowledge base read and contribute access

ACTION STEP 5:

Import your articles and policies

You’ve already created your template and moved your articles into that template. Your articles have also been reviewed, approved, and assigned a category. Now you’re ready to import



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those articles and policies into your ServiceNow HR knowledge base using the import feature. Here’s what you do next:

1. Select HR Knowledge Base from the Application Navigator and click the Import Articles button.

Figure 13: ServiceNow Import Articles button

2. Select your knowledge base.

3. Select the category you’re moving articles into.

4. Select the Word files you’re importing into the category. We recommend you select multiple files at a time and drag them to the Import box rather than selecting files one by one.

EXPERT TIP Put all Word files ready for import in a folder on a file drive, not an online file-sharing solution.



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Figure 14: ServiceNow article import window

5. Once you’ve selected all files, click Import.

Figure 15: ServiceNow Import completed indication

Articles will be imported in Draft status.



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Step 5 – Perform a final review and publish Discover the final steps to take before deploying your knowledge base.

KEY INSIGHTS • Review articles within ServiceNow prior to publishing.

• Your KB should give employees the same consumer experience at work they get at home.

“HR service delivery models that include a comprehensive knowledge base deliver the highest level of efficiency to the organization.”

– CedarCrestone, 2015 HR Systems Survey

Now that your documents have been uploaded into the HR knowledge base, you have one more step. Articles are imported in Draft status, giving you one more chance to review them before publishing to ensure the content imported correctly.

Put some simple governance in place to make sure that the HR knowledge base stays accurate and current. Your knowledge manager, reviewers, and content owners should establish clear rules for publication upfront and meet periodically to determine if additional governance measures are needed. Publication rules should include:

• Do not allow content creators to publish (or retire) knowledge articles directly.

• Only allow content owners to publish or retire content.

• Content owners should set mandatory review and expiration dates for content categories.

Follow these action steps to review and publish your articles.

ACTION STEP 1:

Filter draft articles

From All Articles in the application navigator, select the Filter icon and add an AND filter: Workflow is Draft. Click Save, then Run.



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Figure 16: ServiceNow draft article filter setup

ACTION STEP 2: Review draft articles

As you did in Step 3, you need to complete a final review prior to publishing your KB to your community. The knowledge manager and content owners will review the key elements of each article:

• Category – Verify that the article is in the right category.

• Valid to – Is there a shelf life or expiration for the article? For example, the end of the year is the expiration date for your 401(K) annual limits.

• Short description and body content – Make any final content changes, make sure the format is OK, and check for broken links.

• Attachment link – Verify whether the article should include an attachment. If so, ensure the attachments are accurate. Choose whether you want it displayed at the bottom of the article. Note: You can link to attachments within your article without using the attachment link.

• Format – Sometimes when importing articles, the format may be altered. Address this as needed.



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Figure 17: Draft knowledge article within ServiceNow

EXPERT TIP

Use the Search for Duplicates feature to search for duplicate content.

Figure 18: Search for Duplicates button within ServiceNow

ACTION STEP 3: Publish article

Once your review is complete, publish each article. Although most of the hard work is done, you now need to be prepared to deploy and maintain your knowledge base. This process includes training your teams, educating your employees, and doing ongoing article maintenance.



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Note: There are some additional configuration steps, such as adding criteria on each article, to provide a next level of personalization. These topics will be covered in a future best practice document.

The takeaway Congratulations! You’re ready to be a champion of organizational knowledge! Knowledge management focuses on ensuring that the right information is delivered to the right place or person at the right time. Providing your employees with direct access to knowledge allows them to make more informed decisions. HR is more efficient and the quality of services the department delivers is improved.

Keep these tips in mind:

• Be sure to celebrate with your knowledge management team and promote the launch of your knowledge base.

• Typically, the launch of a knowledge base coincides with case management and the employee service center, so partner on the deployment of both tools.

• Be prepared for change management before your go-live. This key step is required to experience greater adoption.

• Working with your marketing and internal communications teams is the best way to promote within the business.

• Make sure to track your progress using reporting tools within ServiceNow to demonstrate knowledge management effectiveness and to identify any possible remediation.

Customer example showing 10 success metrics

• View of content (Top 10)

• Content ratings (top 10 and bottom 10 starts/helpful)

• Content viewed that results in case created (Top 10)

• Number of cases created overall

• Overall site visits (logins)

• User patterns by location, job type/level, or other (TBD)

• HR use patterns (content views vs. case creation)

• Case deflection



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• Reporting frequency: monthly, quarterly, year over year

• Overall user satisfaction by annual survey (SurveyMonkey)

After deployment, ServiceNow customers have experienced these benefits:

• Reliable and consistent answers to all employee inquiries, regardless of geography, role, and status

• Faster case and incident resolution, which promotes case deflection through employee self-service and better enables HR support agents to provide quicker, more accurate replies

• Increased employee satisfaction

• Improved employee retention

Customer examples of benefits from deploying HR Knowledge Management • Foundation for self-service deflection

• Cases are shifted left

• Easier to cover when someone is on vacation

• More sustainable when someone leaves

• Improves case documentation

• Everyone knows the same thing

• Higher audit and CSAT scores

• Faster to onboard new employees

Reduction in case volume not only reduces the burden on your team but allows the HR organization to become less tactical and more strategic.

“Since going live a week ago it's been extremely exciting for the function to see the uptake rate from the business. The

knowledge base articles have been accessed 1,825 times and 285 forms have now been lodged online!

That's 1,825 queries HR didn't need to field and potentially 95 work hours saved from filling and authorising!

– Janette Woodham, Head of Human Resources, Western Power



33

Especially when the deployment is well communicated and celebrated, ServiceNow customers usually see users adopt the knowledge base immediately. For example, after deployment, an enterprise HRSD customer experienced 57,000 knowledge views in the first month by around 10,000 employees, resulting in 80% case deflection.

Note: This Success Playbook covers the beginning steps of knowledge management. Once your knowledge base is deployed, there are many other processes and best practices to follow in order to grow and maintain an effective knowledge management function. Look for additional knowledge management playbooks in the future.



34

Appendix

Related resources • Building a Knowledge Base for HR: Best Practices from a Customer who has “Been There,

Done That!”

• ServiceNow knowledge base template code for our internal process articles

• Harness the power of Knowledge Search

• Knowledge Management, A Good Practice for HR

• Step-by-step guide to knowledge administration and usage

• Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) is a service delivery methodology many industry experts refer to as a great resource for knowledge best practices. The four key fundamentals of knowledge management are:

– New content is created as a byproduct of problem solving.

– Content is reviewed and enhanced.

– Current collective experience is stored in a knowledge base.

– Learning, cooperation, and knowledge sharing is incentivized.

KCS offers a "double loop" process that illustrates what knowledge is trying to do. ServiceNow Reporting, Performance Analytics, and Dashboards provide several out-of-the-box reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will provide the data you need.

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=06fc26a5dbd0dbc01dcaf3231f961915

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=06fc26a5dbd0dbc01dcaf3231f961915

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=856daa29dbd0dbc01dcaf3231f961927

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=f91e226ddbd0dbc01dcaf3231f961910

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=d54deee5dbd0dbc01dcaf3231f961985

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=b2bc6e25dbd0dbc01dcaf3231f96192b

http://www.serviceinnovation.org/kcs/

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